UNITED
NATIONS,
July 15 – In
2007 UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon and
his then head
of Political
Affairs Lynn
Pascoe
announced
they'd open an
office in
reclusive
Turkmenistan.
Like the
current leader
of
Turkmenistan
it had a long
name: the UN
Regional
Center for
Preventive
Diplomacy for
Central Asia,
or UNRCCA.

The
head of UNRCCA
Miroslav Jenca
comes to meet
with the UN
Security
Council in New
York every six
months but
rarely speaks
with the press
afterward.
Inner City
Press was
contacted by
whistleblowers
about the
office,
and after that
it was even
harder to get
any question
in to or about
UNRCCA.

After Monday's
Security
Council
session Inner
City Press
asked July's
Council
president
Rosemary
DiCarlo of the
US if there
had been
discussion of
the Rogun dam
project in
Tajikistan,
and
Uzbekistan's
opposition,
and that
UNRCCA's and
Jenca's role
was.

Inner City
Press asked, "you
referred to
water
resources. Was
there any
discussion of
this dam
dispute
between
Tajikistan and
Uzbekistan?
Seems to be
like a big
issue in the
region, and I
don’t know
what UNRCCA’s
role is in
trying to
resolve it."

DiCarlo said
that water
resources
issues were
being looked
at regionally,
not just
between two
countries: "on
the issue of
water, one of
the roles of
this office is
to bring the
countries
together to
help resolve
issues on this
matter. And of
course, it’s
something that
is done sort
of region
wide, not
necessarily
between the
two
countries."

Back
on July 10, an
invitation
from the
Department of
Public
Information
went out and
was immediately
accepted for
one of DPI
“brown bag”
briefings,
which Inner
City Press and
the Free UN
Coalition for
Access, which
pushes for
more
information
from the UN,
have praised
in the past.

Jenca was to
speak from 2
to 2:45 on
Monday, after
Jenca met the
head of DPI:
perhaps this
way questions
could be
answered. But
after 1 pm on
Monday, Inner
City Press and
FUNCA were
told that the
briefing was
canceled due
to lack of
interest. Only
one other
journalist, it
seemed, had
signed up.

@FUNCA_Questions seeks
information
about the UN's
work, then
makes it
available on @FUNCA_info, as a virtual
briefing room
open to
all, while DPI
gives its
partner a room
that is kept
locked, for
briefings of
which non
money paying
journalists
are not
informed.

Attempting
to hold brown
bag briefings
is laudable –
but what about
access for the
press and
public to the
new General
Assembly hall,
where a
session on
migration
Monday was not
even in the
DPI Media
Alert, and
from which
groups were
excluded. What
about
increased
access? FUNCA
will keep
pushing. Watch
this site.